


What Exceeds All Wonders

by splash_the_cat



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Astronomy, Current Events, F/M, Fluff, Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 18:10:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7398097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/splash_the_cat/pseuds/splash_the_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jupiter's a little excited about the Juno probe orbit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Exceeds All Wonders

**Author's Note:**

> Because this would totally happen.

_But what exceeds all wonders, I have discovered four new planets and observed their proper and particular motions, different among themselves and from the motions of all the other stars; and these new planets move about another very large star [Jupiter] like Venus and Mercury, and perchance the other known planets, move about the Sun. As soon as this tract, which I shall send to all the philosophers and mathematicians as an announcement, is finished, I shall send a copy to the Most Serene Grand Duke, together with an excellent spyglass, so that he can verify all these truths. — Galileo Galilei, Letter to the Tuscan Court, 30 Jan 1610._

They'd hardly seen each other for the last few days, with Jupiter back helping her family after Nino sprained her ankle in a fall, working dawn to dusk and staying at her uncle's, and Caine and Stinger sorting out the planetary security options for when Jupiter declared Earth her official alcazar in the next few weeks.  So when she'd unexpectedly shown up at Stinger's door smelling of excitement and anticipation, it was all Caine could do not to herd her up the stairs to their little attic room.

Though that's pretty much just what he'd done as soon as she'd greeted Stinger and Kiza and finished the cup of coffee Stinger had offered her with a shit-eating grin at Caine.  It took a while - Caine stopped to kiss her on the landing, and then every few steps up Jupiter returned the gesture, until they burst through the door of their room, Caine already unfastening her pants as she yanked her shirt over her head, letting her duffle slide off her arm to land on the floor with a thump.

He'd gotten them onto the bed, himself naked, and her down to her underwear when something in her bag trilled. With a delighted squeak, she bounced off the bed to rummage for it.  She returned to the bed with her little tablet device, already scrolling rapidly as she flopped down onto her belly.  Voices chattered excitedly as she started some kind of vid playback. He caught "Jupiter" which pricked his attention enough to peer over her shoulder.  The vid showed a squat hexagon, three spindly rectangles fanning out from it, against the backdrop of Jupiter-the-planet's distinctive clouds. _Illustration of Juno orbit insertion_ , read the caption before it switched back to an excited woman saying something about "JPL" and "Galileo" and "successful orbit maneuver."

Seeing it was a tercie thing that had nothing to do with the Jupiter he was concerned with, Caine nibbled on said Jupiter's shoulder, licking and biting down her side, tugging at the waistband of her underwear with his teeth before drawing them down as far as he could to nose into the little hollow of her hip.

Jupiter, however, remained glued to the tablet. 

"They timed it down to the second," she said.  "Literally. They were one second off their target time. That's amazing, given it took five years to get there."

"We could be there in five minutes."  He didn't whine.  Absolutely did not whine.

"That's not the point, Caine.  This is all the science I ever knew. Your stuff, well, that's still all science fiction to me." Her fingers ruffling through his hair took any sting from her pronouncement, but he nipped her on the curve of her bottom anyway, then licked at the spot, pushing up the hem of her underwear to lick further along her skin, not-very-subtly nudging her to lift her hips. 

Grinning, Jupiter did roll over, but sat up, holding out the tablet in front of him.  On it, a grainy, fuzzy round blob, kind of pale orange and white, half in shadow, slowly grew on the screen.  Four bright dots whirled around it ("Time lapse of Juno approach to Jupiter orbit" scrolled across the bottom). 

"Look at this. We - okay, NASA and JPL -programmed all the trajectories into a computer, put it in this probe, shot this spindly thing into space on a rocket that burned 627,105 pounds of incredibly dangerous liquid oxygen and rocket fuel, waited five years during which it used Earth's gravity to slingshot it, and then it maneuvered itself into orbit around this giant planet, using that programming from five years before, one second late. _One second._ And all of that powered by the sun."

Okay, given how backwards Earth was technologically, Caine had to admit that was pretty impressive in the context of what they had to work with.

Jupiter flopped onto her back, hugging the little tablet, the woman still chattering excitedly through the speakers. "I mean, if my dad could have seen this..."  She blinked furiously, and Caine ducked his head, feeling a little bit like a jerk now.  He kissed her the jut of bone of her hip and wriggled up to lick away the tears that crept from the corner of her eye before settling his head on her shoulder. 

"He'd be pretty amazed at both Jupiters." 

She kissed him then, deep and sweet, and when she broke away, starting with, "I'm sorry, I'm-" he kissed her back, reveling, as he always did, in the taste of her, the sweet disbelief that she would even think she owed him an apology. She hmmed happily into his mouth when he nipped her bottom lip, licking at that spot to break the kiss.

"Come on."  Caine tapped at the screen, where the four shining moons spun around their queen.  "Show me more."

 


End file.
